Love a good anthology film? Here are five frightening movies that contain numerous stories to thrill you and chill you in the dark.
The anthology film is like getting several movies in one. Numerous directors get a chance to tell their stories packaged nicely into an overarching film. We see it more commonly today in television, most specifically Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story. Anthologies allow different visions to come through, enticing the audience with different levels of horror to increase tension. Some of my favorite anthology horror films have one stand-out story but can consistently entertain me throughout. Narrowing down the list to just four was difficult because you have so many options throughout the years. The films assembled here all have different tones and levels of horror, from the more sedate to the intensely graphic.
Most of these are more contemporary features, mainly because the anthology wasn’t as well discussed pre-1970s, though I will give a shout-out to 1945’s Dead of Night. One of the earliest anthology horror films I can recall, Dead of Night is an atmospheric British film that will creep you out with its sense of atmosphere. It also has an incredibly spooky puppet because the best horror movies have weird dolls in them.
So let’s mine the depths of the horror film landscape to find the best movies that are stuffed full of different types of frights. You’ll be surprised at what’s included.